Ocado Persuades Agency to Take Second Look at AutoStore Patent

Ocado has a “reasonable likelihood” of winning its argument that an AutoStore patent for a robotic warehouse shouldn’t have been issued, the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board said.

• The patent, 10,294,025, is part of a case AutoStore filed at the U.S. International Trade Commission that seeks to block imports of Ocado’s warehouse system and thus limit the company’s expansion plans
• Ocado contends that the patent, which covers remote-controlled robots that pick up bins from a stacked storage system, is “neither new nor inventive”
• AutoStore argued the agency should decline to institute a review because invalidity issues will be considered ...